Ramona High School’s boys volleyball team shared seventh place at the North County Invitational tournament April 3-4, which saw the Bulldogs’ Stuart Corbett selected to the all-tournament team.
“It was a great week for us,” said Coach Jeff Klauda.
The Bulldogs won their first four tournament matches to bring their winning streak to five before a quarterfinal loss to top-ranked Poway and a fifth-place match deemed less important than resting sore starters.  
“As long as we’re healthy we’re going to have a pretty strong showing,” said Ramona coach Jeff Klauda.
The Bulldogs preceded the tournament with an April 2 home match against Bonita Vista.  
“We played well for the first time all year,” Klauda said.
The Bulldogs also played a full match for the first time all year with outside hitter Adrian Papps, who rolled his ankle in the March 11 season opener against Carlsbad.  
“It really helped solidify our serve-receive and we didn’t have as many weak spots in our rotation,” Klauda said.
Papps’ presence also allowed Klauda to return Brian Allen to the middle blocker position and return Corbett to an outside hitter spot.  
“It was nice to go out and play well against them,” Klauda said of the Bonita match.  “This was the team that I kind of expected to see all year long.”
The Bulldogs swept the match in 25-12, 25-15, and 26-24 games.
“It was a big game for us because we had been struggling for a while,” Klauda said.
Corbett had 18 swings, 12 kills, and four hitting errors against the Barons.  Papps had 22 swings, nine kills, and only one hitting error. Allen’s seven swings produced five kills and two hitting errors.  
“Our hitting errors were down big-time,” Klauda said.
Garrett Adelman led the team with 29 assists while Trevor Adelman paced Ramona with 13 digs.
Ramona was seeded second during pool play at the North County Invitational but still won all three matches April 3 at Alliant University. The Bulldogs began pool play with a 25-10, 25-15 win over Morse.  
“Played pretty well,” Klauda said.
Corbett had 11 swings against the Tigers with ten kills and one hitting error.
“He dominated every team we played,” Klauda said. “Offensively it was pretty much the Stuart show this weekend.”
Ramona’s next match was against University City. The Bulldogs took a 25-18 victory in the first game, and the luxury of putting in substitutions saw Ramona’s Chris Garcia serve for 11 consecutive points en route to a 25-6 triumph in the second game.
San Pasqual was seeded first in the pool, but the Bulldogs earned the actual first place with a 25-22, 16-25, 15-12 win over the Golden Eagles.  
“We played really well,” said Klauda. “We played our best game against San Pasqual,”
Klauda noted that the loss involved being stuck in a rotation and allowing San Pasqual to accumulate several points.  
“We just could not sideout,” he said.
Corbett had 25 swings against San Pasqual and totaled 15 kills with four hitting errors. Papps had 22 swings resulting in 10 kills and five errors.
Garrett Adelman led the team with 25 assists.  
“Garrett did just an amazing job of getting the ball to the outsides,” Klauda said.
Winning the pool also meant facing a second-place pool team in the first Saturday game while San Pasqual would end up facing Rancho Bernardo.
“That was huge for going into the next day,” Klauda said.
Ramona’s first April 4 opponent was Notre Dame High School. Ramona’s Saturday matches at the Epic Volleyball Center in Poway began with a 25-13, 25-27, 15-13 win.  
“We had a great comeback to win the third game,” Klauda said.
The Bulldogs trailed 9-4 and 13-8 in the final game before winning the final seven points.  
“That was a huge, great job, showed a lot of character, a lot of heart,” Klauda said.
Corbett’s 33 swings against Notre Dame provided 21 kills and two hitting errors.
The win advanced Ramona to the quarterfinal against Poway.  
“The guys were really fired up,” Klauda said.  “We were real pumped up for it and played a great match.”
The Titans advanced to the semifinals but only after 25-23 and 27-25 games.
“We played them tighter and closer than anyone else did all day until they got in the finals,” Klauda said.
Ramona was relegated to a fifth-place match, but the health of his players for league competition was more important than the result of that contest and Klauda opted to provide his substitutes with experience against Long Beach Poly, which took 25-11 and 25-13 victories.  The loss gave Ramona a 7-9 overall season record.
The all-tournament team included 12 players, allowing for the selection of Corbett despite Ramona’s seventh-place finish.
Ramona begins league play April 15 at home against Orange Glen.